Swamped

It's coming back to you now. Rule number one: read the crowd.

And this crowd is not happy about Ash. Grey seems to feel stronger about it than everyone else, but there's been a distinctly unhappy mood since you dropped his name.

"I hadn't heard about that. Haven't seen him much since I got back, and it's not like I talked to him a lot before then, either. Sounds a bit careless of him, though. I mean, I heard we had some trouble lately, so I'd imagine the injured list is longer than usual."

"Trouble!" Grey laughs. "Trouble, nothing. It's been one crisis after another. Between the greatrats, the tunnelers, and the Marshguard attack..."

"We've been lucky, though," Nina interjects. "Despite all of that, we haven't had many injuries. The bigger concern is damage to the base. In fact, I hear we're having more of a problem with injuries from knights who aren't used to repair work."

"Boat squad still got beat up bad, though," Greenbags says. It's like you don't even need to say anything. "But I guess they got off easy for a squad that tangled with Mudviper."

Wait. What?

"Mudviper? Why would boat squad be getting into a fight with someone that high up the ranks? They try to stay out of trouble."

"It was an ambush," Greenbags continues. "Viper and two others snuck onto the barge. I hear it would've gone real bad if our one-armed newmuck hadn't rushed onto the scene at the right time."

Grey stares at him.

"Wait, the newmuck stopped Viper? I hadn't heard about that."

"Well, you don't talk to boat squad much. They told me about it when I was asking them if they'd had trouble with greatrats."

Hmm. You think you've let the conversation drift on its own enough. It's time to think about where to nudge it.

Especially if you want some kind of hint at the secret Grey's sitting on.